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Snippets from the news

• Strong climate policy would protect 14 million American jobs. • Schwarzenegger declares statewide drought in California. • Asian autos outsell Detroit for the first time. • Law firm forms practice group focusing specifically on climate change. • Bill Gates dumps stake in ethanol company.

World Environment Day is June 5

Thursday is World Environment Day, and you will no doubt celebrate by donating to Grist. (Thank you!) Once you’ve got that out of the way, you can also help out our dear environment by packing a lighter suitcase when you travel, jogging in the park instead of on the treadmill, using a wind-up alarm clock, […]

Will the Senate ever get to constructive (or destructive) debate on climate bill?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he won’t allow floor debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act to extend beyond next week, according to an article in E&E Daily ($ub. req’d) today. “If we don’t finish it next week, then it means something has gone wrong,” he’s quoted as saying. But at an […]

Mexico City residents losing sense of smell, says research

The air pollution in Mexico City is so bad that it could be harming residents’ sense of smell, researchers say. People who live in the city, which exceeds the World Health Organization’s ozone standards 300 days out of the year, did a worse job identifying common scents like coffee and orange juice than residents of […]

Report: Strong climate policy would protect 14 million American jobs

Originally posted at the Wonk Room.

A new report from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, finds that strong climate policy is a driver for a healthy economy. A policy that prioritizes energy efficiency and renewable energy -- such as cap-and-trade legislation that limits carbon emissions -- will drive investment into those sectors. From day one, the millions of Americans working in such jobs will enjoy greater job security.

Strong Climate Action Directly Benefits Over 14 Million American Workers. "What is clear from this report is that millions of U.S. workers -- across a wide range of occupations, states, and income levels -- will all benefit from the project of defeating global warming and transforming the United States into a green economy." Over 14 million people throughout the country are employed in 45 representative occupations that would benefit in a low-carbon economy, roughly nine percent of today's total U.S. workforce. [PERI, 5/28/08]

The six green strategies examined in the report are: building retrofitting, mass transit, energy-efficient automobiles, wind power, solar power, and cellulosic biomass fuels. PERI's analysis shows that the vast majority of jobs associated with these six green strategies are in the same areas of employment that people already work in to-day, in every region and state of the country.

Ian McEwan writing a novel about climate change — with funniness!

Ian McEwan. Photo: Eamon McCabe Booker Prize-winning British novelist Ian McEwan, now best known for Atonement, is at work on a new novel about climate change that will include “extended comic stretches,” The Guardian reports. The unnamed work isn’t due out for another two years, but McEwan read an excerpt to an audience in Wales […]

Umbra on carbon calculators

Dearest Umbra, I recently heard an interesting interview on NPR, and the speaker was talking about how, to stop global warming, all humans would have to limit their carbon emissions to just one ton of carbon per person, per year. I’ve never weighed my carbon emissions, but I’m going to guess that I throw a […]

U.S. emphasis on Canada’s tar sands a bad idea, says report

As the United States expands its oil-refining capabilities, more than two-thirds of planned capacity will be devoted to processing crude oil from Canada’s tar sands, says a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project and Environmental Defense Canada. Tar-sands capacity is predicted to see a total increase of 1.9 million barrels per day, says the […]

Michael Pollan calls for crafting a viable alternative for next time

 

After many, many months of wrangling, Congress recently passed a farm bill, overriding a veto by the president. In my view, it is not a very good bill -- it preserves more or less intact the whole structure of subsidies responsible for so much that is wrong in the American food system.

On the other hand, it does contain some significant new provisions that, with luck, will advance the growing movement toward a more just, sustainable, and healthy food system.

You might rightly ask why there was so little movement on commodity subsidies, in a year when crop prices are at record highs and public scrutiny of the subsidy system has been intense. Indeed, the people on the Hill I talk to tell me they have not seen so much political activism around the farm bill in a generation. All the calls, cards, and emails sent by ordinary eaters clearly made a difference.

So why so little change on the key issue? Why didn't we get a food bill, rather than another farm bill? Here's what I think happened.

South Dakota vote is step toward first new U.S. oil refinery in decades

Plans have moved forward for the first new U.S. oil refinery in more than 30 years, as voters in South Dakota’s Union County approved a rezoning that would allow the project to be built. Energy company Hyperion Resources says the planned $10 billion facility would be a “green refinery” and would produce ultra-low-sulfur gasoline and […]